NEW DELHI: The alleged Swati Maliwal row, which has now spiraled into a major showdown between the AAP and BJP will hit the streets of the national capital on Sunday with the Arvind Kejriwal led AAP announcing that it would march to BJP’s headquarters from where ‘the PM could arrest anyone he wanted because the clear central govt was targeting all AAP frontliners and imprisoning them’.
The political slugfest escalated after Delhi Police on Saturday arrested Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s ex-personal secretary, Bibhav Kumar in connection with the alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM’s residence this week. The Ex aide is also in a five day police custody after a ruling in the Tis Hazari Court late Saturday night.
Hours after Kumar’s arrest, Kejriwal held a press conference in which he announced his intention to march to the BJP office on Sunday, and dared the “Prime Minister to send anyone he wants to jail”.
“I along with my MLAs and MPs would go to the BJP office at noon tomorrow so that the Prime Minister can send anyone he wants to jail. The AAP is an idea. For as many AAP leaders you jail, the country would produce leaders a hundred times more,” Kejriwal added.
The AAP has also alleged that Swati Maliwal was ‘blackmailed’ by the BJP to hatch a ‘conspiracy’ against the Delhi CM Kejriwal. The party also has claimed that the BJP intends to send other senior leaders like Atishi, Raghav Chadda and Saurab Bharadwaj behind bars too.
“It’s in your hands. If you want me to go to jail choose the BJP, otherwise choose the AAP. They (BJP) are after us. They arrested Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and me. Today they arrested my PA, now they will arrest Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj,” Kejriwal in a rally after Bhibav’s arrest said.
The political slugfest escalated after Delhi Police on Saturday arrested Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s ex-personal secretary, Bibhav Kumar in connection with the alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM’s residence this week. The Ex aide is also in a five day police custody after a ruling in the Tis Hazari Court late Saturday night.
Hours after Kumar’s arrest, Kejriwal held a press conference in which he announced his intention to march to the BJP office on Sunday, and dared the “Prime Minister to send anyone he wants to jail”.
“I along with my MLAs and MPs would go to the BJP office at noon tomorrow so that the Prime Minister can send anyone he wants to jail. The AAP is an idea. For as many AAP leaders you jail, the country would produce leaders a hundred times more,” Kejriwal added.
The AAP has also alleged that Swati Maliwal was ‘blackmailed’ by the BJP to hatch a ‘conspiracy’ against the Delhi CM Kejriwal. The party also has claimed that the BJP intends to send other senior leaders like Atishi, Raghav Chadda and Saurab Bharadwaj behind bars too.
“It’s in your hands. If you want me to go to jail choose the BJP, otherwise choose the AAP. They (BJP) are after us. They arrested Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and me. Today they arrested my PA, now they will arrest Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj,” Kejriwal in a rally after Bhibav’s arrest said.
Amid the blame game, here are the top developments:
- The police have said that they have recorded statements from at least 10 individuals, including staff members and security personnel, who were present at the Chief Minister’s residence during the alleged assault on May 13.
- Bibhav Kumar’s mobile phones have been confiscated, and they are investigating his communications with Maliwai. According to the police, Kumar has also deleted chats and other content from his phone.
- The Delhi Police have also gathered footage from eight CCTV cameras and the DVR from the chief minister’s residence. An officer noted that there was no CCTV camera installed in the drawing room where the alleged assault took place.
- In the ongoing blame game following the assault case, AAP leader Atishi stated that if the Delhi Police are truly impartial, they should also file an FIR based on Bibhav Kumar’s counter complaint against Maliwal.
- AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj has said that “senior BJP leaders are in touch with Swati Maliwal”. Speaking to the PTI news agency, he said, “When a woman makes such allegations, it seems that there must be truth in her words. We, too, felt the same in the case of Swati Maliwal. But when the video of the drawing room of the Chief Minister’s residence came to light, something different was visible in it.”
- In her latest tweet, Swati Maliwal has alleged that a video of Bibhav Kumar allegedly assaulting her has been edited. “Only 50 seconds (of the video) were released when I was fed up of explaining to the security guys. Now they have formatted the phone and deleted the entire video? CCTV footage is also missing! Even conspiracy has its limits!”
- Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to march to the BJP office on Sunday, saying the Chief Minister is doing “emotional atyaachar (torture)” instead of replying to questions on Maliwal’s alleged assault.